EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Temporary Suspension of Adoptions from Cambodia

Margaret Hodge: I am announcing a temporary suspension of adoptions of Cambodian children by UK residents.
	The temporary suspension is being introduced in response to concerns raised by and investigated by officials from the DfES who visited Cambodia, by the British Embassy in Cambodia and, separately, by other stakeholders about the intercountry adoption process in Cambodia.
	I believe that the safeguards in the Cambodian adoption system are currently insufficient to prevent children being adopted without proper consents being given by their birth parents and improper financial gain being made by individuals involved in the adoption process.
	The specific areas of concern include:
	Evidence relating to the systematic falsification of Cambodian official documents related to the adoption of children;
	Evidence relating to the extensive involvement of adoption facilitators in the adoption procedure in Cambodia even though Cambodian law expressly forbids facilitators participating in the adoption process;
	Evidence relating to the procurement of children for intercountry adoption by facilitators, including by coercion and by paying birth mothers to give up their children; and
	Concern about the prevalence of children trafficking and corruption generally in Cambodia.
	The temporary suspension will take effect immediately and will be imposed on all UK applications to adopt children from Cambodia where the prospective adopter has not yet received a matching report from the Cambodian authorities. This is the latest point in the adoption process in Cambodia where a temporary suspension could take effect before a Cambodian adoption certificate is issued.
	Although the UK authorities could intervene where a prospective adopter applies to bring a child into the UK there is a considerable risk that the child might be left in the situation where they have been legally adopted in Cambodia, and as such are no longer an orphan but are unable to enter the UK with their adoptive parents. This would pose a significant risk to the individual child and would clearly be unacceptable.
	I intend to consider reviewing the temporary suspension when the Cambodian Government pass new adoption legislation or if there is another development I consider to be significant, for example if Cambodia were to implement the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of intercountry adoption.
	Only in exceptional circumstances will I consider that the temporary suspension should not apply in a particular case. Any decision relating to a particular case will of course take account of what is in the best interests of the child and all the facts of the particular case.

HEALTH

National Health Service Continuing Care

Stephen Ladyman: I am publishing today figures that detail the progress made on investigations into cases where individuals may have been inappropriately denied national health service care.
	Strategic health authorities have been required to investigate cases where individuals may have been inappropriately denied fully funded NHS continuing care since 1996. Where investigations have revealed that care should have been provided the NHS has been recompensing, or will recompense, individuals for the cost of that care. This process has formed part of the Department's response to the health service ombudsman's report into long term care, which was published in February 2003.
	The process began with each SHA reviewing and aligning the criteria for NHS continuing care within its area and ensuring that these criteria conformed with the legal position.
	The Department requested that investigations, as far as possible, were completed by 31 March 2004. The number and complex nature of new cases presenting themselves during the three months from January to March 2004 posed significant challenges to meeting that deadline, but the NHS has remained committed to completing investigations as accurately and thoroughly as possible. At the end of March the NHS had completed 57 per cent. (6,713) of all outstanding investigations. This number is greater than the number of cases that the NHS was aware of at the end of December 2003, and demonstrates the NHS's commitment to completing cases promptly once they are received. The Department will check that those cases outstanding at the end of March have been completed as of the end of July. From then onwards I will expect any cases to be completed within two months of all the information on the case being received by the SHA. The situation in each SHA is summarised in the table.
	Following the work carried out by SHAs in reviewing, revising and investigating the provision of fully funded NHS continuing care, awareness and application by the NHS is improving. The NHS expects to pay a total of over £180 million when all the cases received by the end of March 2004 have been investigated and restitution made for incorrect decisions. There is a timely appeal process for current cases, so that the need for a retrospective recompense process will decline.
	
		
			 SHA Name No. of CasesEligible forRecompense Investigations Completed Investigations Underway 
		
		
			 Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA 0 281 370 
			 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire SHA 34 102 110 
			 Essex SHA 10 146 26 
			 North West London SHA 10 181 191 
			 North Central London SHA 8 64 61 
			 North East London SHA 0 169 11 
			 South East London SHA 60 183 90 
			 South West London SHA 62 194 21 
			 Northumberland, Tyne & Wear SHA 27 126 172 
			 County Durham and Tees Valley SHA 10 48 178 
			 North & East Yorkshire & North Lincs SHA 29 266 93 
			 West Yorkshire SHA 25 130 219 
			 Cumbria and Lancashire SHA 15 154 186 
			 Greater Manchester SHA 5 102 240 
			 Cheshire & Merseyside SHA 107 774 422 
			 Thames Valley SHA 4 181 202 
			 Hampshire and Isle of Wight SHA 30 386 121 
			 Kent and Medway SHA 24 186 44 
			 Surrey and Sussex SHA 5 15 860 
			 Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire SHA 43 612 349 
			 South West Peninsula SHA 25 433 120 
			 Dorset and Somerset SHA 14 448 467 
			 South Yorkshire SHA 138 232 78 
			 Trent SHA 0 236 79 
			 Leics, Northants and Rutland SHA 29 202 22 
			 Shropshire and Staffordshire SHA 38 412 19 
			 Birmingham and The Black Country SHA 10 213 73 
			 West Midlands South SHA 8 237 187 
			 Total—England 770 6,713 5,011

Toft Report

Melanie Johnson: In July 2002, the Government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, commissioned Professor Brian Toft to investigate the circumstances surrounding four adverse events that had occurred in the reproductive medicine units at the Leeds teaching hospitals NHS trust. This followed reports of a mix-up in treatment that led to mixed-race twins being born to a white couple.
	Professor Toft's report is published today. He concludes that a mixture of inadvertent human error and systems failure was involved.
	He makes a number of recommendations for the trust, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the Department. He also recognises that significant progress has already been made to address the issues his recommendations raise.
	Responses by the trust, the HFEA and the Department to the recommendations directed specifically at them are also published today.
	The Government recognise fully the distress that these mistakes and failings have caused to patients and their families, and the importance of ensuring that lessons are learned to minimise the likelihood of them happening again. We are grateful to Professor Toft for a thorough investigation, and welcome his report.
	Copies of Professor Toft's report, and the responses to it by the trust, the HFEA and the Department have been placed in the Library.

DEFENCE

Army Base Repair Organisation

Adam Ingram: The following key targets have been set out for the Army Base Repair Organisation for financial year 2004–05.
	
		
			 Key Target Details Target 
		
		
			 KT1—financial performance—return on capital employed (ROCE). The measurement of ABRO's ROCE. To achieve a return, averaged over the period 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2005, of at least 3.5 per cent. 
			 KT2—delivery performance. The measurement of revenue projection. To complete delivery of 100 per cent. of the planned revenue projection (£150 million) in FY2004–05, and in each of the next three years. 
			 KT3—business systems. The measurement of the introduction and operation of TABS and the imperative to detach from the current supply system. To introduce and have operational the ABRO business system (TABS) and to have detached from the ESPPA supply system by 31 March 2005. 
			 KT4—efficiency The measurement of the reduction in price of ABRO output. To reduce the average equipment repair price, across the whole programme, by 20 per cent. against the 2002–03 baseline. 
			 KT5—winning work The measurement of ABRO winning work. To maintain a closing order book of at least£80 million for FY2004–05 and to maintain this level for the next three years.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

FCO Travel Advice

Jack Straw: In my statement to the House on 1 April, Official Report, column 1769, I presented the review of FCO travel advice (Cm 6158), and invited comments from all quarters on its conclusions and recommendations. A number of associations, companies and individuals, many but not all from within the travel industry, responded to this invitation. I held a round table on 27 May with key stakeholders to discuss further their views on our travel advice service and how it might be improved. I am now in a position to announce to Parliament the revisions which will be made.
	We have discussed at length the difficult question of how we can best inform the public about the threat from terrorism in individual countries. As I said in my statement of 1 April, our travel advice needs to strike a balance between danger and disruption: making put lie safety its prime concern while minimising the disruption which terrorists want to cause. Our advice must inform people of the threat from terrorism and, when the threat is acute, it will inevitably lead to some disruption in travel in the interests of public safety. But at the same time we must make sure we do not do the terrorists' work for them by causing too much of the disruption which they seek.
	I have therefore decided that in future, in the case of intelligence-based terrorist threats, we shall advise against travel only in situations of extreme and imminent danger—if the terrorist threat is sufficiently specific, large-scale or endemic to affect British nationals severely (option E on page 22 of the review). The factors which we shall consider in reaching this judgment will include the specificity and credibility of the intelligence information, the recent history of terrorist incidents in the area, the likelihood that the threat could affect British nationals, and the level of protection from the threat available to British nationals. One reason for making this change of emphasis is to maintain the credibility of our advice. I am concerned that many people continue to travel despite our warnings against all essential travel. The public will be better served if such warnings are used more sparingly. I should add that we shall continue to prescribe against travel in cases of non-terrorist threats (coups, civil unrest, natural disasters) on the same basis as before.
	I have also decided to accept the recommendation on page 28 of the review to establish a standing advisory council of travel advice users. Details of membership, timing and agenda are still to be finalised, but the council would bring together representatives of the travel and insurance industries, NGOs and others to advise on issues arising from travel advice and its implementation. It would not be consulted on individual travel advice changes, which would continue to be the responsibility of officials and, ultimately, myself.
	I have also asked my officials to implement a number of recommendations from the review, and from the subsequent consultation, to make the travel advice pages clearer and easer to use. Although we have achieved considerably greater clarity over the last year, further refinements have been suggested to ensure that those who consult the FCO website or the telephone call centre take away the key points.
	One fact that has emerged clearly from the review is that, while our travel advice service is heavily used, many different types of customer use it for widely varied purposes. Inevitably, we cannot satisfy all the demands, some of which are mutually exclusive, but I am confident the adjustments outlined above will improve the overall quality of service and level of customer satisfaction.